familyletters.co.uk

May 5^th

Dear Mother

Just a line to say I’m very fit and well. We have been in these trenches 8 days now and are being relieved tonight thank goodness. It has been a bit wet lately & yesterday we had a thunderstorm; & today is very muggy again. Otherwise the weather has been perfectly lovely and really very hot.

Send me out one of those new absorbent cotton wool face masks, but I expect you have already done so. I’ve got a rotten wire one, but I think the other kind are better & easier to carry-

I got a whole bundle of papers this morning, including “the Boy’s Realm” which has been read with much gusto in the trenches-

Nothing much going on here nowadays; all the fun is going on up near Ypres apparently. We have got to bivouac tonight out in the open, I hope it stops raining by then. I wonder why they can’t find billets for us.

No more news

Tons of love

from yr loving son

Ted

Boys’ Realm – http://www.friardale.co.uk/Boys%20Realm/Boys%20Realm.htm

May 4^th

Dear Mother

Just a scrawl. No news; all serene and quiet here. We have been in these trenches just a week now, and I believe are being relieved tomorrow night.

It was ripping weather up till today when it began to rain & has made everything beastly & muddy now

The cake has nearly all been eaten now & was voted a complete success in our dugout; it was’nt a bit heavy but just right.

I see a book advertised called “The Indian Army ABC” by Captain Aliss; rhymes & pictures I think, published by Thacker @ 1/-; I thought it might be amusing, so could you send me one please.

Good north sea news I see by the paper; any news of Paul by the way.

Just had a whole lot of mouth organs sent to us! Imagine our men playing, they don’t know one note from another.

A packet of Pink’ uns etc has just come by post, looks like Jane’s writing; many thanks.

Post just off; the dugout is beginning to smell damp & fuggy, I shall be glad to get out of it tomorrow.

Love to all yr loving son

Ted

The Indian Army ABC scanned – http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/87039 –

Warning: this includes the n-word used in the the context of someone who is offensive because they show a lack of respect for “our Sepoys”, ie our soldiers. The booklet is racist, but it also shows the pride that the Indian Army officers had for their troops and the distaste they had for the more extreme racism of those British who had no experience of Indian soldiers. 

It’s naive to think of the Indian Army officers as not being racist: whatever their personal views, the army they held a comission in was structurally racist because it was impossible for an Indian to become a comissioned officer and because it enforced a racist imperial regime. However, the racism in the Indian Army had a certain paternalism to it and I am willing to speculate that in practice it may not have differed much from the class-divisions in the regular British Army with the ambiguities that implies. I suspect that things may have been different in the Imperial civil service, the diplomatic and the plantations.

“Pink ‘uns” are explained in the next letter.

May 3^rd

Just a line to say I’m all right. Not much going on here nowadays. Weather lovely except for a little rain yesterday. Very fit & smiling. Love to all

Ted

May 2

Dear Ben

Here are your Zoo tickets, I trust they will help you to spend a happy hour or two there. Percy says hang on to his cards & don’t part with them, but show one and write your name in a book, & then you’ll always be able to get into the Royal Pav.

Will you do something for me please? Thanks. I want you to get me from Hugh Rees a cover for ARMY BOOK 153. He has a special kind, the same shape & leather as those little writing blocks you get at Hugh Rees. It has a talc cover on one side for putting a map in. Send it along as soon as you can.

No news here; all well, lively weather, trenches quite comfy, but it is drizzling a bit today-

I hear poor Banks has been killed; I’m most awfully sorry.

Got a Tatler & Bystander today, many thanks.

So long

Lots of love from

Ted

The enclosed cutting made me roar! Show it to Dick.

Army Book 153 – 
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/machine-gunner-pocket-book-plus-161889845

Garland day

Dear Mother

Just a line to say all is well- We are in the trenches once more & have been in for 5 days now, I have no idea how long we shall stay in, some time I expect. The cake arrived safely, very many thanks for it.

Lovely weather still, beautifully warm & sunny all day. This morning at 4.30 a.m. the Germans opened the ball with a fairly heavy bombardment which lasted about an hour but did very little damage. I don’t know what their game was, but I expect it was a sort of May day greeting!

No we have not been in all this heavy fighting round Ypres, though some Indian troops were employed I believe. Many thanks for the Neuve Chapelle story; the map on the back is really excellent. My dear, you must have been simply overwhelmed with cuttings lately, for Neuve Chapelle was the star turn till Hill 60 and Ypres knocked it out.

Not much going on here. Jack Lodwick has got a DSO for good work with machine guns; did I tell you he was married? He got married when he was on leave last month.

Sorry for a dull note, but I must try & drop a line to someone at home each day- Best love to all

yr loving son

Ted.

The date of Garland Day seems to vary from place to place, being celebrated on the 1st, 12th or 29th May.

April 29^th 1915

Dear Mother

So sorry I have’nt written to you for so long, but we’ve been on the rush rather lately & owing to unforseen complications have had to come back into the trenches again after going back for a longish rest, which in reality only lasted one day. For no sooner had we got to our destination than we got orders to come back next day. So here we are back in the trenches once more! You have of course read all about the heavy fighting round Ypres lately, in fact you mention it in your letters; but we were’nt sent up there, though I believe some Indian troops were employed-

We are in the trenches, the same old game again, only the weather is of course much better now. The last 2 days have been simply gorgeous, absolutely cloudless sky and lovely and warm; such a change after all the bitter winds & rain we have had lately. I’m so glad the awful winter is over now. The trenches are really quite respectable now. Dry & clean, & dust has in every way taken the place of mud everywhere now. I don’t know which is the worst, I think it is just whatever you happen to be suffering from at the time, when it’s mud you long for dust, and vice versa.

I got a cake from you last night; thanks awfully for it. We have’nt tackled it yet, but it will be a most welcome addition to our simple fare-

I’m so glad your stay at Folkestone did you good, & I’m sure you are all the better for it. These are anxious times & I know you feel far more than anyone from your splendid behaviour & you look all your anxieties & troubles in the face like the brave woman and splendid mother that you are. It’s useless talking about it, but we all think you are wonderful.

But it’s some satisfaction, is’nt it, that, whatever happens, you know you and your sons & daughters are doing what they can for their country in this hour of trial; and even though it must be a terrible time for you, we know you would not in your heart of hearts, have it otherwise.

I’m afraid I have very little news. Things are fairly quiet here nowadays; all the excitement is up north, or else round the Dardanelles- Any news of Paul lately? I wonder where he can have got to-

Two German aeroplanes have been over our trenches this morning but they were driven away by our anti aircraft guns and two monoplanes of ours which chased them out of sight.

Is the family still split up, or have any returned to the fold yet? I’m so glad to hear Jim has got his commission, & I know it will buck him up as he was so heartily sick of being a Tommy, wasn’t he.

I am sitting in a trench basking in the gorgeous sun. I had a shave & a good wash this morning but am filthy again now as I have spent the morning going round the trenches and seeing what’s going on everywhere.

Must finish up now. Love to all from your loving son

Ted

21.4.15

Dear Jinny

I wonder if you would do something for me- I have taken the liberty of sending your address to a friend of mine Mrs Stack (her husband was a pal of mine in Lansdowne in the 8^th Gurkhas, and was killed out here last October, Ben knows her & knew him) because she wrote to me today and asked me if my doctor brother would sing some songs for some soldiers in outlying camps etc just to amuse them. So I have written to say that I thought perhaps you would help her if you could, only she is not to rely on you in any way as you may have lots else to do.

As regards Dick, if he could possibly manage to sing a song or two for her, it would be ripping, but I told her also to put no reliance on his help as he is a busy man etc etc; I mean I haven’t tied either of you down to help her & you can easily say no, but do go if you can.

No news; send along London opinion & a mail occasionally, Tons of love from Ted.

P.S. In case you are put to any expense over this show, I enclose £1. If you don’t go, spend it on what you like.

I feel a certain sympathy for Ted, asking his siblings to do something which he knows will be inconvenient and time consuming for someone they don’t know, for whom he feels sorry and whose situation is pretty grim.

His letters and Ben’s letters in November and December frequently refer to “Poor Mrs Stack”. She was Mary Bagot Stack, known as Mollie, the widow of Captain Edward Hugh Bagot Stack who was killed at the end of October 1914. They had two chilren the eldest of whom had died at birth in 1913 and the second, Prunella, had been born in July 1914 just before war was declared. Mary went to England but her husband was killed before Mary and Prunella landed in Portsmouth. This was dreadful time for the small family. Mary was a remarkable woman who went on to found The Women’s League of Health and Beauty.

While in India, Mary Stack noted the physical differences between the British Imperialists and the Indian women of all castes, who seemed to benefit from yoga, with better posture and greater flexibility. In London she started an exercise class for children and another for women, and in 1925 established the Bagot Stack Health School. Here she taught teachers – among them Prunella, who qualified in 1930, aged 16, already a veteran demonstrator of her mother’s techniques. Mary promoted a philosophy of exercise structured and graded to the needs of all ages and abilities, and taught by trained physicians, through huge public displays.

Although Mary’s health was deteriorating, in an attempt to reach more women she set up the Women’s League of Health and Beauty in 1930 in the YMCA premises on Regent Street in London.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/prunella-stack-the-lsquoperfect-girlrsquo-of-the-1930s-who-led-the-womenrsquos-league-of-health-and-beauty-2228430.html

See also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bagot_Stack

http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100526542

Order of St John of Jerusalem
INDIAN SOLDIERS’ FUND.

17^th April 1915

Dear Mother

They have sent a lot of this paper up with the Rations today so I thought I’d use a bit just for fun. Many thanks for your letter from Folkestone today; I expect by now you have got my letter saying I had arrived safely. We have moved up nearer the firing line since & some of us go into the trenches on the 19^th, but not all. Gorgeous weather here now, but still quite cold at nights.

So glad you have been away for a rest and change, I’m sure it’s done you heaps of good, especially after all the strenuous days of last week, with never less than 12 sitting down to meals! The memory of my pleasant 4 days at home will last me a long time. I have heard from all the others, and they all wrote such nice letters to me. I wish they would remember it was I who did all the enjoying & they who made my leave so absolutely perfect; you were all splendid.

Nothing much going on here. These fine days produce a good crop of aeroplanes always and we see them up every day over the German lines and they are fired at every time they go up, but so far none have come to any harm; tap wood!

I had a long letter from Ben this morning; I’m glad to say she has got all the letters I wrote her; I was rather afraid one I wrote just before I came home on leave might not have been posted. So Jane is getting on to Dick soon is she. I heard from him, he does’nt seem to get any orders, though I hear out here that his destination is probably Marseilles-

The no stamp dodge worked all right, but if there is no definite regulation it seems a shame to chizzle govt out of 1^d every time you write; besides it might not always work. By the way you can address my letters “The Garhwal Rifles” now, not 2/39 as hitherto, as we are now called by the former title, at anyrate for the duration of the war; & accordingly I sincerely trust it won’t be for long! Tons of love to all

yr loving son

Ted

14.4.15

Dear Mother

Just a line to thank you for your letter today. “Mrs No-Stamps” was a complete success, & it arrived quite all right together with a letter from Jinny, posted earlier in the day in Guildford, and with a stamp on. So it seems all right, but perhaps a bit risky unless you can get some definite news from the G.P.O. I hear you are going to Bournemouth, I do hope you do, as I am sure you will benefit by it-

You say you didn’t do enough for me. My dear Mother, you couldn’t have done more, you were all much too good to me and all helped to make my leave, as far as I was concerned, a complete success. I’m afraid I was away a good deal, but you know how hard it is to stay at home. Since coming back I have already heard from 2 people asking me why I did’nt go & see them! But I stayed amongst the family as much as I could I think. Anyhow it was lovely seeing you all again & I can never thank you all enough for being so frightfully good to me. I did love it all so.

Quite a nice day today, but it seems much colder than at home.

By the way tell Ben not to forget to write to Mussett, the Heraldic people, about the investigation they are making for me; tell them to send it to her at Delaford & not to me in India; Dick is very keen on it.

I wonder how those photographs came out. Do mind they are sent for me to see, as I am awfully keen to see them. As regards my professional ones, the family had better choose what they want; I don’t want to see them, so please don’t send em out here.

Must end up now- It was a gorgeous time at home; I shall never forget how ripping everyone was. Best love to all from your loving son

Ted